Mash it up in the technicolour international bass den downstairs, with a cross section of the finest selectors the UK and Americas have to offer, tempted into the chaos by Big Gwan himself… Ascend from the depths of the den and take of the devilish pleasures on offer inside the rock n roll disco, where heavy blues men drink with sultans of surf, and circus cabaret is performed for drunk punks and lost children of the rave.. Feed your senses and groom your souls with genuinely cheap liquor and all the freedom of the speakeasy…Come shake off your shackles and grind down with Big Gwan!

10 pounds entry all night, includes free drink!

IN THE TECHNICOLOUR INTERNATIONAL BASS DEN

KANJI KINECTIC (Mutant bass, Rag N Bone, Senseless) – Heavy bass producer beloved of Mary Anne Hobbs, his mix of bassline, techno, and dubstep has left him in high demand for shows around the globe.

SASQUATCH (Senseless) – Like the mythical beast his name conjures up, sasquatch is a monster in the studio. His broad reaching heavy bass sound has scored him gigs across the globe, working with likes of Foreign beggars, Max Romeo and Warrior Queen, to name but a few legends…

MUSKUT- Muskut’s style is pushing the boundaries of hip hop by adding grime and dubstep to the forefront of his high end production and mixes, earning him slots alongside Jehst, foreign beggars and many more powerhouses of the UK hip hop scene.

JOHN FAIRHURST BAND – Globally acclaimed John rips out some of the rawest, heaviest blues you will ever see, think captain beefheart meets seasick steve with all the guitar skills of Robert Johnson and you are approaching what is a truly unmissable, if somewhat violating experience!

100% BEEFCOCK AND THE TITSBURSTER –Female 2 piece, explode with full blown guitar distortion and erratic bass lines to a back drop of borderline psychotic drumming, picture the aphex twin in flagranti with early butt hole surfers in a mental insitution..

Amazing decor and visuals courtesy of meno.tv, enjoy kaos and the Boomtown Fair!

2011 marks five years of Senseless Records, five years since the soundsystem culture of Leeds, UK inspired us to press the first Sarantis white label grime EP. In that time we’ve searched the UK and far beyond for international heat reaching out from Warsaw to Caracas. We’ve released almost twenty EPs and two albums of technicolour bass music from an extended family of artists including vocalists like Max Romeo, Warrior Queen, Badness, Foreign Beggars and YT and producers like Jack Sparrow, Starkey, Ghosttown, Phantom, Kanji Kinetic, Brackles, MRK1, Pocz & Pacheko and many more.

Pandemonium circus is a shadowy group of performers featured in time out who have been working on the underground for a number of years under various names and guises, with acclaimed groups such as the Invisible Circus, the Mutoid Waste company, Prangsta, Guerilla Zoo, and the Boomtown Fair.

A string of classic grime tracks from Sarantis originally launched the label so it’s fitting that the original Senseless artist returns to help celebrate our 5th birthday. The Greenhouse EP takes the signature Sarantis blend of raw grime and basement and hotwires it to a 160bpm juke tempo to create a fresh hybrid that could only come from one artist.

‘Militant’ jacks up grime strings and a wall of bass alongside the firing bashment delivery of rising star Parly B with a prophetic message given the recent social unrest. Title track Greenhouse FX samples horns hip hop style before splicing them in to a million pieces and reassembling them on tough percussion and elastic synths. More Dead Than Alive is straight grime with menacing, cinematic strings. Distorted Reality references sci-fi, 8-bit and classic Detroit to cook up one of the EP highlights. Scanner Riddim completes the package, an instrumental of militant crying out to be re-voiced by any MCs that can handle it.

The first release ties together three tracks all at around 130BPM which look to the past while sounding like the future. Shades of classic electro, grime and rave in the oven and it smells good.

A. Venice Calypso – Drifting
Futuristic electro bass blaster, as featured by Brenmar in The Fader. An incredible debut release from this London based Polish producer.
AA. Rossi B & Luca – Turbo Island
London grime legends (Planet Mu/ARMY/Havy Artillery) who have been producing certified grime hits for over a decade drop it down low to 130BPM for this energetic new school meets old school workout.
AAA The Phantom – Arctic (Devil Mix)
The Phantom follws last year’s smash EP with his debut vinyl release pays tribute to Wiley’s beatless Devil mixes from grime’s golden age but updates it with cinematic tropical flair.

Digital Exclusives

The Phantom – Arctic (Vocal) The original with full beats and vocal samples.
Venice Calypso – Tunguska The perfect soundtrack to an electronic tribal ceremony.

Artwork by:
Song (olfacoception // smell)
Currently residing in Australia, UK born Graffiti artist Gloom has spent many years travelling the globe painting trains, walls and anything else that he can make his canvas. His vibrant, colourful style makes his graffiti stand out amongst the rest.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gremlindogs/4426857184/in/photostream/

Project Info: Synesthesia = Five Years // Five Senses

Celebrating five years of international bass exploration Senseless Records presents Synesthesia: a vivid spectrum of colours, shapes and textures drawn together into two pallets, one sonic and one visual to create five very special releases; a series of strictly ltd. Edition (of 250) 12″ records with hand screen printed sleeves and an art print insert created by an exciting collection of international visual artists, each offering their take on one of the five senses. Cutting edge bass on each release from Senseless artists, new discoveries and legendary producers who have inspired the label. Confirmed contributors include Poirier, Rossi B & Luca, Oris J, Stereotyp, Cardopusher, Pacheko, DJ Eastwood, Phantom and JTRP but we’ll announce the full line up for each record only as each is released.

Summer 2011 marks five years of Senseless Records, five years since the soundsystem culture of Leeds, UK inspired Sarantis to press up his first white label grime EP. In that time we’ve searched the UK and far beyond for international heat reaching out from Warsaw to Caracas. We’ve released almost twenty EPs and two albums of technicolour bass music from an extended family of artists including vocalists like Max Romeo, Warrior Queen, Badness, Foreign Beggars and YT and producers like Jack Sparrow, Starkey, Ghosttown, Phantom, Kanji Kinetic, Brackles, MRK1, Pocz & Pacheko and many more.

Remember Pacheko’s top notch space dub funky remix of Max Romeo at the end of last year? If not then refresh your memory and watch a beautifully surreal, psychdelically animated video created by Venzuelan artist Igor Bastidas.

Pachanga was amazing, 2500 people and anyone there will tell you it was one of the best London warehouse raves in recent memory, pure vibes. Thanks to all the DJs who played, you smashed it. To High Pressure, Siren and Everyone Sound and everyone else who worked so hard to make it happen. Amazing photos are here courtesy of Bartek Szadura. (His Portfolio)

The celebrations for our fifth birthday started properly on Saturday with the epic 2000 person rave, pics and videos from that coming later in the week. All the information about the Synesthesia is here, the launch is this Thursday, Cafe 1001, Brick Lane. 6pm-Late. Very LTD signed Giclee prints will be on sale of each work and this is the only chance to see them before each gets released, so come on down.

Summer 2011 marks five years of Senseless Records, five years since the soundsystem culture of Leeds, UK inspired Sarantis to press up his first white label grime EP. In that time we’ve searched the UK and far beyond for international heat reaching out from Warsaw to Caracas. We’ve released almost twenty EPs and two albums of technicolour bass music from an extended family of artists including vocalists like Max Romeo, Warrior Queen, Badness, Foreign Beggars and YT and producers like Jack Sparrow, Starkey, Ghosttown, Phantom, Kanji Kinetic, Brackles, MRK1, Pocz & Pacheko and many more.

To celebrate five years we proudly present Synesthesia: five limited edition of 250 vinyl EPs, each with hand screen printed sleeve art from rising UK star Chris Pell. The releases are themed around the five senses and features a high quality art print insert from specially commissioned international artists representing each sense. Every 12″ includes three tracks from a selection made up of existing Senseless artists, some very exciting debut releases and a selection of legendary names who have inspired the label over the years. Confirmed contributors include Poirier, Rossi B & Luca, Oris J, Stereotyp, DJ Eastwood, Distal, Phantom and JTRP but we’ll announce the full line up for each record only as each is released.

The series will launch with an exhibition in London in May with all the original artworks on display, very limited signed numbered prints for sale. Music will be an all analogue experimental live performance from Headcleaner who has released on many labels including Aphex Twin’s Rephlex. We will also play all the music from the series with label DJs.

Visual Artists:

Vesna Parchet

German artist based in London; works vary from paintings, illustrations, sculpture, printmaking and murals. Recent exhibitions in Hong Kong and Tokyo alongside Dface, Swoon, Jeff Soto and Cyclops. Vesna works around the body and an obsession with the human (trans)form is very evident in her pieces. Her blend of realism and abstract, beauty and ugliness is mesmerising.

Barcelona based painter and graffiti artist; specialises in screenprinting and organiser of numerous interactive live-painting events in autonomous spaces across Europe. Works in progress include mixes of speaker design and sculpture. Dirty is a catalyst and very active part of the artistic scene in Barcelona and Berlin.

Currently residing in Australia, UK born Graffiti artist Song has spent many years travelling the globe painting trains, walls and anything else that he can make his canvas. Whilst living in the UK he painted with artists such as sweet toof and 10foot. His colourful style makes his graffiti stand out amongst the rest.

Leeds based artist Hazel Potter currently works as a tattoo artist in her own studio. Holding exhibitions around the vibrant art scene in the North of the UK she also works alongside fashion designers mixing her striking, feminine style with clothing design. Works in progress include her own set of Tarot cards to be displayed in a Romany caravan around the UK. Bittersweet and twisted, her work perfectly displays the beauty and chaos in the human mind.

Katie Scott

Katieʼs arresting and varied work is intricate and detailed, balancing technical ability with a wild creative streak. She is a recent graduate of the The University of Brighton but has already created commissioned work for an impressive list of clients including BBC Radio 4, and BBC 2 on TV, Platform Magazine, Design Week. Expect to hear a lot more from Katie in the near future.

Chris Pell’s instantly striking work is inspired by a collection of disparate influences ranging from alchemy and mysticism to soca and sparse marshlands. Out of these he creates another dimension that we’ve been lucky enough to step in to through his work for the label. Chris has created two pieces for us, the most recent will be screen printed on to all the sleeves of the birthday releases. He’s exhibited in the UK and USA and had illustration commissions for Moshi Moshi Records, bands including Metronomy and Dillinger Escape Plan and recently the global clothing brand ASOS.

We’re welcoming in the 5th birthday year (see below) for Senseless with an incredible release that mixes cutting edge bass music with traditional Ethiopian instruments and folklore. Combined with the artwork, a ‘making of’ video and backed by a truly international set of remixes, it is a project that has been a year in the making. The man responsible is international bass nomad Maga Bo, a producer and DJ who literally embodies the global spirit of Senseless as a label. You might know him from an extensive discography including is work with the Dutty Artz collective in NYC (DJ Rupture/Matt Shadetek/Uproot Andy etc), or on labels like Shockout, Tru Thoughts, African Dope or Soot Records. For those unfamiliar with his work he lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a place where he draws plenty of inspiration from, musical and otherwise, as he explains,

“Brazil is a massive inspiration… I’m very interested in afro-brazilian rhythms, of which there are many. samba, coco, baião, sambareggae, jongo are all present in my new productions for example”.
There’s another level to his experience in Brazil too, one that informs his work on a deeper level:
“I’m a permanent resident in Brazil, but this has been a very difficult and stressful journey and has really opened my eyes to the experiences of immigrants around the world. I am a migrant musician, as most musicians are, historically, to some degree. Migration and immigration are powerful forces influencing and affecting culture and art. The music that I compose, produce, play and research is a product of migration – my own journeys and the journeys of others.”

That very much sums up Bo’s existence and why we’re so excited to be working with him: a relentless thirst for travel, discovery and collaboration driven by music. This EP came about from a trip to Ethiopia where he met Indriss Hassan who plays the distinctive single-stringed masinqo on title track Ransom. The track was inspired by the infamous hyenas which are fed raw meat outside the gates of Harar, birthplace of Ras Tafari. As Bo explains,
“The way they way move is unlike any animal I’ve ever seen: very powerful. It was their particular way of moving – with caution, but also with desire (to feed) and power – that inspired this track.”

Ransom evolves out of a haze of field recordings driven forward by handclaps with the distinctive masinqo loop rising up out of the atmosphere before a deep sub bass rolls in to underpin it. It’s at once hypnotic and psychedelic, evoking the intensity and energy of a vibrant city like Addis Ababa after dark. The other original track, Gondar, is a traditional Azmari song from Ethiopia, rewired with a dancehall-like riddim and elastic synth bass and more masinqo, this time played by Eritbu “Solomon” Agegnehu.

The remixes come from a truly international line-up all hand picked by Maga Bo himself. First up with a dancehall/dubstep hybrid is the legendary Timeblind of NYC via Berlin, whose varied career has seen everything from techno releases on Hawtin’s Plus-8 to digital dancehall on Kid606’s Shockout. Teleseen (Percepts Recordings), another NYC native atomises the parts and reassembles them in a gloriously schizophrenic electro/acoustic showdown. South Africa’s Fletcher (African Dope) takes the track in a dub direction adding space and FX to the mix. Filastine (Soot/Jarring Effect/Uberlingua/PWI), from Barcelona, comes through with a time-bending groove and ratty, resonant subbass. Last up, Senseless family Pacheko from Venezuela offers up a dub orientated bass-weight monster aimed at deeper dancefloors, something a little different from his recent 4×4 work.

Finally, a special mention for the artwork, a collaboration between local photographer Michael Tsegaye and Venezuelan designer Mad Kick, part of the Abstractor collective with Pacheko. A video clip shot by Maga Bo during the recording of “Gondar” completes the picture.

Tune in tonight for some warm music on a cold day, like they say i’m bringing my technicolour bass machine…

Back on the webwaves this Wednesday, Rob (Pollinate) and Jon (Hanuman) present their monthly Hivemind.fm show. This month special guest Deville of Senseless Records joins the party bringing with him his technicolour bass machine to select some sunny delights, LIVE!